Stuff Happened - Week 6 Edition

by Luke Louison (GiantBallofOil) Last Updated 2016-10-21 13:08:15

You can chalk this week up to the chalk.

The default lineup construction was heavy at running back and quarterback and value at wide receiver and tight end. It did not disappoint.

Here are the eight most expensive backs on the Sunday Only slate, in priced order, including their ownership in the Fantasy Football Millionaire (Milli Maker) and their scores:

Those eight were among the 11 most owned running backs, with the only exceptions being Carlos Hyde (sixth most owned), Jamaal Charles (seventh), and Ryan Mathews (ninth). Just the top five highest owned backs of the eight, represented 134.6% ownership. The total ownership percentage for all backs falls between 200% and 300%, depending on how often a running back was used in the flex. That means the five most owned backs, all among the eight most expensive, represented somewhere between 45% and 66% of all running backs played in the tournament.

Like a reliable employee working behind Fenway’s Green Monster, these eight backs didn’t just show up; they put up numbers. Two of them hit 30+ points, another two put up 20+, and Bell’s 18.8 was low compared to expectations but passable. Even the “duds” were over 10.

The chalk didn’t just win the week by itself. It also pushed owners down into the cheap wide receivers and tight ends, where more points were just waiting. Of the four most owned receivers, three were priced under $4,500, and two of them (Cameron Meredith and Michael Thomas) put up over 4.25 PT/$K. (Also, both were my Grout for a Shout selection, at one point. More later.) Regarding tight ends, two of the three most owned in the tournament were under $5,000, with production of 3.0 PT/$K (Jimmy Graham) and 7.3 PT/$K (Coby Fleener). It just worked.

Never mind the two most owned quarterbacks being Brady and Brees. Chalk >>>

The chalk even won in the #TeamMG versus #TeamChalk challenge.

You might be asking yourself, “Didn’t I see @stevietpfl tweet out this?”

Why, yes you did. You’ve got to go back to the origin of the battle, though to correctly view this match-up. It started in baseball with Dean saying Stevie’s off-the-wall play was sub-optimal. From there, Stevie claimed his contrarian ways could beat Dean’s (and Derek Carty’s) chalk. Then, it began. Dean and Derek, and their popular plays of course won, (4-2). Stevie and CJ (TheSeige) wanted to quickly get something else going, to put their loss behind them. They offered an NFL version of the challenge, this time against an updated #TeamChalk, with me pairing with Dean, subbing in for Derek. Another 7-game series was started to decided once-and-for-all, again, whether the popular plays could be beat.

They couldn’t. Stevie and Seige conceded. That’s why despite their team putting up 166.2 to our 161.5, the supremacy of #ChalkLife won. Want proof? Here’s their lineup. The red numbers are that player’s ownership in the 34,500-entry Giant $2 Double Up.

That’s right. When, in order to win and prove that you can “beat the chalk,” you must play a lineup which includes one single positional player under 23% ownership, you didn’t “beat the chalk.” You joined it. #ChalkLife

Stuff Happened, Week 6 Edition

This week, the common construct was expensive quarterbacks and running backs, paired with cheap wide receivers and tight ends. When Odell Beckham Jr. and Rob Gronkowski hit the board as the highest scorers at their position though, the Highest Scoring Lineup was too expensive to be the Optimal Lineup.

As you’ll see the “fix” is a best Case scenario, as Case Keenum produced his second ever 300-yard game and third game ever throwing three or more TDs. That landed him just 1.54 points shy of Drew Brees, at $2,900 less salary.

At running back, it was the first week with a running back in the flex, on the Sunday-Only slate, driven by three backs over 35 points (L. McCoy, J. Ajayi, and L. Miller). In the prior five weeks of Sunday-Only, there were only two total backs in the 30s, Spencer Ware in Week 1 and Ezekiel Elliott in Week 5.

At wide receiver, behind Beckham’s 44-point eruption were four more receivers in the 30s and Julio Jones at 29.9. None of those four 30-point pass catchers out-scored any of the three top backs though. A running back week was promised, and a running back week was delivered. Then, at tight end, it is Gronk’s world, and we’re just living in it. His 7-for-162 and a score was 6.5 points clear of the next closest tight end. At defense, when you score twice, and no other team scores once, you get the nod for top squad. No sacks, one turnover, no problem for the Eagles.

Both the Highest Scoring and Optimal Lineups set season highs, and it was also the first week every position player was over 30. I think we all know why, if you know what I’m chalkin’ about!

Making a Millionaire

So, uh, Mallen21 had a pretty good week.

Winning a $1,000,000 certainly constitutes that. He also won $100K. And $50K. And $25K. Oh, he also took 10th, 13th, 14th, 26th 32nd, 35th, 41st, 56th, 57th, 61st, 79th, 84th, and 87th, to go with more finishes outside the Top 100. He didn’t even “max enter,” using only 145 of the possible 150 entries. Next week, the tournament might as well be titled The Fantasy Football Millionaire, on loan from Mallen21. After all, he owns it at this point.

Across his five top scores are four unique lineups. All of which contain three players, Lamar Miller, Kenny Britt, and Golden Tate. That is, three of the nine in the Highest Scoring Lineup. He also mixed in LeSean McCoy in four of five, Rob Gronkowski in three of five, the Eagles DST in three of five, and Drew Brees in two of five, accounting for another 44% of the perfect team. He only missed out on Jay Ajayi and Odell Beckham Jr., but the substitutes he used, in Brandin Cooks, Randall Cobb and Michael Thomas, more than sufficed.

It was this sort of week:

As a feeble attempt to bring Mallen21 down a peg, I’ll point out that even his top scoring lineup, a 254.4, was only 84% of the optimal score. We’ve seen 89% win in three of first five weeks. Despite having six of nine optimal players, he still fell near 50 points shy: 25 from Beckham down to Thomas, 18 from Ajayi down to Bell, and seven from Brees down to Stafford. Obviously, he’s got some things to improve upon for next week!

Grout for a Shout

Should we feel self-conscious? pastorthor, who heads up the Church of Marvel, came in, one-time, and ripped the Shout away from all of us us regulars. Not only that, but he did it by picking a guy, CJ Fiedorowicz, who has not been picked by anyone all year. For shame, Grouters.

Regardless, pastorthor, to you, a Shout is due. This is not an echo. It’s simply a BYOS (Bring Your Own Shout) situation. For you, by you. Congrats.

In the season-long chase, we have a new leader!

Six people, justcorbin, dinkpuppy, SwaguarsFan, xpac21, hammer74 and Dizzlewizzle, got caught up to the Two-Thirds Threshold, and are now qualified for the season-long title. In fact, one of them just took the lead! justcorbin picked Coby Fleener this week and slingshot to the front of the pack! dethdealers’s Brandon LaFell pick was not a total disaster, but it did leave him vulnerable, as he slid down to 2nd place. daddywarbuttocks, geoffoz and SCRATCHMAN615 took the biggest tumbles this week, two of them driven by under-performing Packers.

I did some last minute tinkering this week, swapping off of Cameron Meredith and to Michael Thomas. I figured Thomas’s S-A-W-F-T (Saaaaaaaaaawwwwwffffttttt!) match-up was a more important factor than Meredith’s volume. As last minute adjustments always seem to do, it hurt me. Despite that though, I was able to even the JMtoWin Challenge at three apiece. JM selected Jaelen Strong, whose role in that Texans offense seemingly shrank with the absence of Will Fuller.

And with that, it’s on to Week 7!